Elmore Roots Nursery

As the name itself suggests, Elmore roots does look like a nursery for various kinds of trees and plants. These different varieties, ranging from your apple trees and grapevines, coexist in a very natural setting over the expanse of multiple acres. It was a great place to visit as the set-up resembled more to that of a garden than a farm. It was a place where we can see various types of plants, or even various types of the same plants, in their very natural settings.

One thing that struck me was the range of pest-resistant plants out there. Just the apple tree itself has a wide array of more pest-resistant breeds such as the Honey Gold or the Sweet Sixteen, to name a few. This fact opens up so many new possibilities for organic farmers and allows them to grow plantations that are not only healthy on the inside, but those that appear healthy.

It is even possible to make these already disease resistant varieties even hardier. Grafts are taken from the stronger plants and planted onto other plants. This proves to be a great way to duplicate desirable genes in these breeds. And unlike what I have known, bigger in not always better. At times, smaller plantations allow for easier care and for each fruit to really blossom and live up to their maximum potential.

High Mowing Seeds: A green Playground

If you had met me two weeks ago and had asked me to picture my personal ideal farm, I would probably bore you with a description of a very ordinary plantation(And perhaps this is due to my lack of farm exposure). Don't get me wrong! I am not saying that ordinary farms are boring per se since I fully appreciate the complex and intricate dynamics of any farm and the hard work that farmers endure to ensure the optimal growth of their produce. However, what I am trying to say is that the ordinary farm can seem rather mundane compared to that of High Mowing Seeds.

Driving towards the farm, we are faced with a very rustic façade of the building itself, typical of any farm that a bourgeois, like myself, would imagine. But within a few minutes of Tom Stearn's tour, we immediately realize that this is much more than the ordinary farm. In a way, Tom paraded all of his high-tech gadgetry of his farm to all of us and indeed, with what appears to be a collection of state-of-the-art contraptions such as his vacuum seed organizer and his outdoor weather simulator, it would almost be a shame, perhaps even rude, if he did not.

Next up, the farm! This is where things get interesting. Prior to this visit, all my exposure of various vegetables and what I knew about them was limited to what was sold in most markets. I knew that carrots were orange and broccolis green. I never knew or perhaps would never imagine otherwise. There is obviously an established convention in our society when it comes to most people's perception of food. People want their carrots to be orange, tomatoes red, and broccolis green because of either what they have been taught by society and their ancestors. But Tom Stearns obviously does not abide by these established conventions. In his farm, he crossbreeds various types of plant to form hybrids of incalculable possibilites.

There is something quite rebellious or "bad-ass" in what Tom is doing in his farm. He is not afraid to stray from the norms of society and attempt to produce something new, exciting, and undoubtedly revolutionary. Of all the types of bad-asses that exists in our world, this is the type I certainly want to be.